Lawyer for Michael Jacques, accused of torching Springfield church hours after President Obama was elected, asks judge to exclude videotaped interview

File photo by Michael S. Gordon / The RepublicanMichael F. Jacques, of Springfield, is seen in Hampden Superior Court last year.

SPRINGFIELD – The longer the interrogation goes on, the more Michael F. Jacques appears to shrink into his chair.

The 25-year-old Springfield man was being grilled by state police on Jan. 15, 2009, a week before his arrest as a suspect in the torching of the predominately black Macedonia Church of God in Christ hours after Barack Obama was elected president.

In a video played in U.S. District Court Thursday, Jacques initially appears calm, if not bored, while denying any knowledge of the crime. That changes after state police play a recording of him touting the flammable properties of homemade napalm, and bragging about how quickly the church had burned.

“So what’s the worst that’s going to happen to me,” asks Jacques, slumped in a chair, his chin resting on his chest.

The seven-hour interrogation is being challenged by Jacques’ lawyer, Lori H. Levinson, of Great Barrington, on the grounds that it was not voluntary. The defense is asking U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor to bar prosecutors from introducing it at Jacques’ upcoming trial.

The defendant is facing a minimum 10-year prison sentence if convicted of committing a hate crime and a federal felony of using arson for burning down the $2.5 million church while it was still under construction on Tinkham Road.

Two co-defendants, Thomas Gleason and Benjamin F. Haskell, both 22 of Springfield, pleaded guilty in June before going to trial.

The first two hours of the tape were played Monday, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin O’Regan highlighting passages that show the defendant denying knowing anything about the fire, then stating he lied about his role to impress friends and strangers.

“He’s coming to the process of realization,” said O’Regan, noting that the defendant’s answers begin to change once he finds out how much evidence investigators have gathered against him.

Wearing a winter jacket and wool cap pulled to his forehead, Jacques sat across from state trooper Michael S. Mazza as the interview began.

During the first hour, Jacques learns that Haskell had confessed and implicated him; that his conversations with co-defendants were monitored; and that the Holyoke man who hired him to burn down a building was as actually an undercover state trooper.

In response, Jacques said he was initially “blowing smoke” to impress his friends, and had no knowledge or experience with arson.

Later, after being heard making racial slurs and discussing how to make homemade napalm, Jacques sounds disgusted.

“I’m a (obscenity) moron,” he said.

The hearing on the defense lawyer’s request is scheduled to continue in court Friday.